Royal Paintbox

Having presumably demanded a ‘No Titchmarsh’ clause, Prince Charles is allowed to speak for himself in this cursory examination of royal art through the ages. By which we mean, royals who were artists.

The Prince of Wales gets to showcase a few of his own dabblings in watercolour as part of the package, but of greater interest is the work of his forebears: Victoria’s sketches of her children are genuinely charming, while the respective painting and embroidery of George III and Mary Queen of Scots also displayed a real accomplishment curtailed, grimly, by madness and death. It’s fitfully interesting, but a little bloodless and hamstrung by the Prince’s own somewhat limited screen presence. What he shows us is intriguing; what he tells us, rather less so.